Email Marketing Best Practices

Best Tips for Email Marketing

If you are new to email marketing, you might wonder where to begin. You might feel overwhelmed by jargon in trade journals that bombards the average reader. Rest assured that you are not alone. Though email marketing is critical to building and maintaining relationships with your consumer base, launching a successful email base is daunting to the novice. Fortunately, you don’t need years of experience or expertise to get started in email marketing. In fact, the main advantage of email marketing is that it makes marketing accessible for those who lack formal training. These essential tips for email marketing will help the beginner get off on the right foot and find the resources they need for a successful email marketing campaign.

Tip 1: Don’t Skimp on Your Email Marketing Service Provider

To send out a high volume of emails, you will need an email marketing service provider, such as Constant Contact or AWeber. While many great marketing service providers offer email marketing services for free or for discounted prices, cost should not be the only factor you consider. If you are a complete beginner, consider service providers that offer free customer support and easy-to-use templates. If your marketing campaign targets different segmentations or requires detailed data, consider the analytical tools that will be offered. While you can always switch providers, it can be a hassle to transfer your data between services, so it is better to select the best service in the first place. So, consider your needs and select the service provider with the best reputation for accommodating your specific marketing preferences.

Tip 2: The Subject Line Matters

First impressions count, and in email communication, your subject line is your first impression. When your customers or clients sees your email in their inbox, they will scan your title for a few seconds and immediate decide whether it goes into the trashcan. Does this sound brutal? It doesn’t have to be. Now that you understand how important the subject line is, you can use this knowledge to your advantage. Even if you aren’t the best writer, you can find several online resources that will aid you in writing the perfect subject line. Copywriting and blogging resource sites have tested methods of catching your reader’s attention and getting your email read.

Tip 3: Don’t Overlook Mobile Technology

For marketers who have been in the industry for a while, the importance of mobile technology can be overlooked. The rapid growth of consumers who use smartphones and tablet devices to use the Internet significantly impacts the way marketers communicate online. When users view your email messages from a smartphone or small electronic device, even the most polished template can look terrible if it is not customized for mobile devices. Whether your customers are using a computer or mobile device can even impact your performance metrics. For example, a link that is prominently displayed on a regular email template might be difficult to access when it is displayed on a mobile device. When you are learning about email marketing, it is also important to study the latest trends in mobile devices and apply these to your campaign.

Tip 4: Timing Counts

Though businesses can send emails at any time or place, it probably isn’t a good idea. Just as telemarketers wouldn’t call a prospect after midnight, email marketers must also recognize that there is a wrong and right time to email a client. The best way to make sure that your emails get read is to send them out when your audience has time to read them at a leisurely pace. During the weekday, busy customers or clients might be tempted to delete anything that distracts them from work. Or they might skim your newsletter and discard it before they take time to notice a link to your company website. To optimize the performance of your email marketing campaign, it is critical to consider when you are reaching out to consumers. As research confirms, the evenings are typically the best time to send email correspondences to people because they are off work and have time to review information that isn’t essential to their workday. So, to get the most from your campaign, be sure to carefully consider how timing will impact the way your audience receives your message.

Tip 5: Start with Email Newsletters

Now that we have some basic tips out of the way, let’s look at specific techniques that are used in an email marketing campaign. The most common way that businesses can reach out to consumers is through email newsletters. By obtaining the email address of customers or visitors to the company website, businesses can develop a valuable consumer base for their marketing campaign. Email newsletters play the important role of building a relationship with customers by keeping them updated on the latest news or events. Businesses that successfully use email newsletters as part of their marketing strategy generate interesting content that encourages readers to make a purchase. While email newsletters often contain links to company websites to facilitate immediate sales, they can also be used to raise brand recognition. A carefully considered email newsletter can help businesses achieve a broad range of marketing goals.

Tip 6: Master the Use of Autoresponders

Because they save time and resources, autoresponders are an essential technique for all email marketers. An autoresponder is a technique where a series of emails are automatically generated after the email address of a customer or client is captured. While autoresponders seem impersonal, they can be beneficial in generating leads and sales. For example, an autoresponder can send an email welcoming a new client who signs up to receive a business’s newsletter and automatically forward the client promotional materials. Though finding the right templates for newsletters often tops the priority list of those who are new to email marketing, taking the time to learn about autoresponder techniques can greatly improve the efficiency of your email marketing campaign. By taking each of these essential tips for marketing campaigns into account, even the newcomer to marketing can launch a formidable email campaign.